


Commitment

by Sylph_of_Space



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Asexual Character, Canon Continuation, Canon-Typical Violence, Commitment Arc, Mini Arc, Novelization, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Superheroes, The Adventure Zone: Commitment - Freeform, The Berg
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-07
Updated: 2018-05-16
Packaged: 2019-05-03 09:35:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 13,618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14566164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sylph_of_Space/pseuds/Sylph_of_Space
Summary: The Do-Good Fellowship worked mostly in secret, helping the world go round. One day, they discovered a way to augment their employees, making bigger, stronger, better humans. They decided to use this to help further them, and the world, and gathered people to test this on. Irene Baker arrived, here to do her best with Human Resources as possible. Nadiya Jones was brought in due to her Nobel Prize worthy work in biomedics and science. Chris Rembrandt already had a job as an IT worker, but due to his past with extreme acrobatics, he was also brought in on the augmentation experiment.Armed with new powers, these three make an unlikely and uneasy team, working together on various tasks. However, there is a much darker, deeper secret held within the Do-Good Fellowship, one they would slowly uncover and have to face on their own. Would they be able to face this new threat? What happens when all they know is thrown into question? Who can they trust, if anyone?[This is a novelization, and continuation, of the mini arc Commitment. I fell absolutely in love with its charm and wanted to do this for it. I have plans to do a similar one for Dust soon as well. Enjoy!]





	1. Mixer on the Berg

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Adventure Zone single handedly cured my depression with writing and returned all my motivation. Thank you, McElroys, for giving me this back.

Ocean spray flew up behind small skimmer drones as they, well, skimmed across the waters surface. Inside each drone sat a single person, on their way to a floating base in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico that was apparently referred to by those who lived and worked on it as “The Berg”. Most of this base was below the water, much like an iceberg, which is where its nickname came from. It was shaped sort of like a diamond in the center, with three offshoots coming from each point of the diamond. Each offshoot held one of the twelve wings of the organization that owned, ran, and worked from The Berg. This organization is called the Do-Good Fellowship. The Do-Good Fellowship had been looking for excellent people to bring into their organization, one for each of their twelve departments. These skimmer drones were the transport for the chosen twelve. The various skimmers landed at the base and the people inside them got out, marveling at their new workplace. 

One skimmer dropped off a woman who was dressed in business casual with a lab coat thrown over her clothes. Her skin was darker and her hair was brown and curly. She was not smiling. In fact, her natural face seemed to be in a permanent state of thinking. She was holding a binder that was very neat and well-kept, but seemed to be stuffed full of papers. Her badge read “Nadiya Jones, Research and Development”. Without taking a moment to stop and marvel at the massive base, she immediately headed for the entrance. 

The next skimmer dropped off a man. He was on the taller, slimmer side, and dressed very casually. He wore a t-shirt that said “American Ninja Warrior” on it with bright colors splashed around, notably in the order of the American flag, and blue jeans. He sported short, dark hair that was messy in a natural way. It went well with his sun-kissed skin. Clipped to his jeans was his own badge reading “Christopher “Remy” Rembrandt, Information Technology”. He was grinning and bouncing around, a ball of energy. “Holy shit, this is awesome.” He muttered as he craned his neck to get a good look at everything. After taking a few scenic moments to appreciate everything, he bounced towards the entrance the woman who had landed before him had entered not long ago. 

The last skimmer finally pulled into the base, dropping off a short, stout, mouse of a woman. She had darker skin and hair that was pulled into a side braid, with a couple feathers in it. She was dressed in business casual, but with a little flair of her culture thrown in there. She was holding a binder but this one was messy, overflowing with bits of papers and receipts. She pushed her glasses back into place as she looked around the base she had just landed at. Clipped to her jacket was a badge of her own that read “Irene Baker, Humanities”. She took only a moment to admire the base before she hurried inside the entrance herself, clutching her binder close to her chest.  
Once the last skimmer had dropped off the last recruit, an announcement was made over the loudspeaker of the base. “To all our new arrivals: Welcome! There will be a meet-and-greet mixer tomorrow in the Fellowship Hall. There are helpful signs to show you the way as you learn your way around the base. For now, please rest and relax and enjoy your evening, and welcome to the Do-Good Fellowship!” A cheery voice announced. 

The base stayed fairly quiet the rest of the night. Some of the new people started to work on their work right away, trying to get ahead. Others relaxed in their assigned quarters and slept. There wasn’t too much for them to do until the next morning anyhow, when they would meet everyone. 

The next morning, there was another announcement made. “All new arrivals and department heads: The meet-and-greet mixer will take place at three this afternoon! Until then, please head to your departments so you can meet your department heads and be orientated with your job. The mixer will let you meet everyone else and learn about the Fellowship as a whole.” The same cheery voice as before announced. Some groaned about working, and others seemed to be excited to actually start their jobs. Everyone headed to their departments, and met their department heads. Each of them went through their own mini orientation, until the famous mixer was upon them. Around three o’clock, everyone started to head for the Fellowship Hall. 

Inside the Fellowship Hall, there were three massive screens that covered three of the walls. The wall directly across from the entrance door had a screen with a fancy, cursive 24, with a question mark symbol built into the 2. This was the main symbol of the Do-Good Fellowship and was on everyone’s badges as well. Towards the bottom of the screen was a scroll that kept everyone up to date on local weather and the music that was playing. In front of this screen was a huge, self serve bar. There was a man behind the bar serving drinks, even though it was self serve. On the left wall was a projection screen with a color-coded map of the Berg. Ever so often it would zoom in on a section and show different people who worked in the different sections, much like an orientation film. The right projection screen just showed different angles of the mixer itself, cutting to different shots every few minutes. In front of that screen sat a high tech jukebox that was voice activated, and anyone could request any song. Once one is requested, it goes to the middle screen on the scroll, saying what the song is, who its by, and who requested the song. 

Remy found himself immediately by the food table, holding a large plate. He was carefully stacking sliders on it, so he could try every type of slider they had at the mixer. Once he felt satisfied with his slider pyramid, he walked back to the table he was standing around before. At the table were three department heads, one of which was his department head, and two other new arrivals like himself. Just as it looked like everyone was going to introduce themselves, Nadiya stood up and left to request a song. “She Blinded Me With Science” by Thomas Dolby started to play. 

Irene turned to an older woman sitting next to her, by the name of Grace. Grace was the department head of Humanities and thus, Irene’s new boss. Irene fidgeted with her hands just a little, her nervousness starting to show. “Grace, um, I uh wanted you to know that I, I checked on Godfreys’ uh, uh insurance you were asking me, he will be eligible next, um, month, first of the month, if he wants to switch because it’s on an every six month basis, so he’ll be able to switch then.” She explained quickly. She had spent the ride over to the Berg looking over documents from the Humanities department to begin familiarizing herself with the Fellowship and how it worked from an HR perspective. She already had ideas, and was already in the mind to work. 

“That's nice Irene, but this— this is a party, honey! This is a party, you don’t have to worry about working!” Grace laughed lightly, patting her back. Irene gave a sheepish smile.

“I know, yeah I know, I just wanted to let you know, so I’ll check in with him on it.” Irene continued, pushing her glasses back into place again, a nervous habit she had picked up over the years. Grace nodded, giving her a calming smile. “I’m sorry, I’m really nervous.” She finally admitted, a bit quieter so only Grace would hear her admission. 

“Ah, don’t worry, do you want to share a little bit honey? Ya know, tell each other about each other, do you wanna tell everybody about yourself?” Grace turned to the rest of the table with an inviting smile. “Do you guys wanna ask Irene a question?”

Nadiya hardly even glanced up from the cocktail napkin she was scribbling on. “No.” She said curtly. Irene tried not to let that hurt her feelings, she knew a little about Nadiya. She knew she wasn’t much for conversation, and that was perfectly alright by the mousey HR worker. 

Remy glanced at her-well, he glanced down at her as she was a fair bit shorter than he was-and gave her a wide grin. It wasn’t exactly reassuring to her, but his happy energy was a little infectious. “I’m actually relieved, because for a second there I thought you were actually asking us to say ‘grace’ before we ate dinner, which seems like an irresponsible thing for somebody in HR to do. Do you want a slider?” He motioned to the pyramid he had been making proudly. Irene noted that he rambled a little bit like her, but unlike her he sounded more confident. Most of her rambling was because she was unsure. 

“Uh, yeah, uh, what are— what—what kind are they?” She asked. It felt like a dumb question to ask, she realized as soon as she said it. 

“Meat and... bun.” He laughed. “But just take it from the top and not from the bottom ‘cause I don’t want it to fall over. Worked pretty hard on this.” He rocked back on his heels as he spoke, seemingly unable to keep still. 

“Is the top one, is that okay?” Irene asked, pointing to the one on the top of the pyramid. 

Remy nodded quickly. “Yeah, I didn’t touch it super a lot.” He nodded again at the end of his sentence, making Irene laugh a little. 

“Oh— Okay, I’ll have the top one. Th-Thanks.” She took the slider on top and took a bite of the bun, smiling at Remy to show she appreciated it. She wasn’t terribly hungry, and she was also a vegitarian, so once Remy turned his attention to Nadiya and her scribbling, she put the slider down on a napkin and pushed it away gently.

“You know it’s a party, right? I don’t think we have to be working right now.” Remy said rather bluntly to Nadiya. She froze for a moment in what she was doing before looking up at him.

“Oh, no, this is— this is fun. I’m— I’m— It’s a thought experiment where I try to challenge myself to see if I can come up with a formula that I can’t solve. So far, not yet.” She flashed a rather cocky smile before turning her attention back to the formulas she had been writing and solving over and over for the better part of the mixer. 

“Can you help me then?” He asked. This seemed to interest her enough that she glanced up at him, her writing slowing down. “I want to improve my slider pyramid.” He motioned to the slider pyramid, bouncing a little on his toes. “Maybe there’s some way I can, like, make it more structurally sound, using one of your fancy formulas!” He grinned widely. Irene shook her head a little. She knew Remy was far from an idiot, everyone that was recruited here was very intelligent in their departments, but sometimes, Remy could be an idiot. 

His comment was enough to make Nadiya stop writing entirely, putting her pen down and turning her full attention to Remy. “You want— you want me to stop what I’m doing ... to help you figure out how to stack... your small burgers?” She said incredulously. 

“Burger pyramid. Yeah, they’re sliders. They call them sliders. There’s a name for it.” He corrected her. Irene winced just a little, knowing that was a bad move on his part. 

Nadiya raised a single eyebrow, a look that seemed like it was used many, many times. “Okay. Maybe you could try eating one small burger at a time and leaving some... for everyone else?”

Remy laughed. “Oh, no, I’m gonna wimpy down on pretty much all of these, but—”

“Great.” Nadiya interrupted him quickly. “Great, great, great. I’m... gonna go back to my napkin now. Excuse me.” She picked up her pen to start writing again, just as Irene decided to chime in, if only to save Remy from himself. 

“Nadiya, I— I— I hate to interrupt, I— I do want to mention just as long as we’re both here, um—” Irene stuttered out. Nadiya had an intimidating aura about her. 

Nadiya all but slammed her pen down to turn her attention to Irene, obviously getting very annoyed by the interruptions. “Yes, HR person?”

Irene blinked, a little surprised by the hurt that she felt from that. She wasn’t sure why it was so shocking and hurt her, but it did. She knew Nadiya knew her name. “I— I did still need the— your expense reports for your meals on the way in here.” She finished quietly. 

Nadiya nodded slowly, but it didn’t seem sincere to Irene. “Right, right, right.”

“I— I don’t know if you saw— I asked everybody to send those in as soon as you can. It’s— It’s no big deal—” Irene tried to finish, but Nadiya interrupted her just like she did Remy. 

“I’m sorry, I’m just— yeah. You know what, that one’s on me, you know, because I was working on lifesaving technology and science, but you know what, now that you mention it, it is important that I get you that Wendy’s receipt. Sooo, um…” She looked at Irene, waiting for her to add to anything. Remy muttered something about Wendy’s under his breath, which she ignored. Irene had nothing more to say, and went quiet, seemingly pulling in on herself a little.

“Ah, listen there, Nadiya. This is a party, and everybody— starting tomorrow, you guys are gonna be pretty busy with your work and with the big changes in your life. So why don’t you just blow off a little steam and get to know each other, okay?” One of the department heads spoke up. He was an older man and his badge read “Joe Belovane, Head of Research and Development.” Nadiya’s boss. His accent was rather thick and Minnesotan. 

“Love that— love that voice, dude, where ya from?” He was holding in laughter because he didn’t want to seem rude. 

“Fargo.” Joe answered with a smile. 

“Excellent, uh, Fargo, North Dakota.” Remy nodded, sounding like he had visited there before. The music that had been flowing through the Fellowship Hall changed, and Nadiya left the table with a muttered ‘excuse me’. After a moment she returned to the table with a small, genuine smile. The song “She Blinded Me With Science” by Thomas Dolby filled the room again. Remy picked up on the fact that Nadiya was requesting it over and over and gave her a thumbs up of approval. The chatter at their table reached a lull. Nadiya continued her thought experiment, using up a few napkins. Irene lost herself to her thoughts and the music, gently bobbing her head as her mind flickered between different topics. Remy pulled out a fidget spinner from his pocket and spun it around as he chowed down on sliders. After a few minutes, the music was stopped, making everyone look up. 

A man stood in front of the few tables in the Fellowship Hall. His badge read “Hugh Raske, Head of Diversity Inclusion.” He cleared his throat before he started to speak. “Uh, hi everybody, my name is Hugh. Welcome, to our little get-together. It’s, uh, I’m happy to have you here now. I’m kinda introducing the next phase of our— our little program. Um, I’d like everybody, if you aren’t already at your tables, to please move to your— to your tables. Uh, and, uh, the other department heads are, uh, are bringing something to your tables, to your spot, the, uh, well I guess we’ll call them “Swag Bags.”” A few snickers were heard in the room. “Uh, these swag bags are, uh, are our gift to you. But they’re more than just gifts. They’re things that you’ll— you’re really going to, uh, to want to use.” 

As he spoke, the department heads left and returned with the bags in question. They looked like small duffle bags with straps on one side, which someone could use to wear it like a backpack. There was a flap where it opened with a triangle indention on it. Before anyone could really examine and open the bags, Hugh continued. “And we welcome you to the Do-Good Fellowship here at the Berg. And, uh, we are based— I think you already know this from your own research, I know we’ve talked to ya— we are based on the old concept of The Junto that Ben Franklin started centuries ago. And every meeting of the Junto started with 24 questions, and, uh, those twenty-four questions are very important to how we operate here at the— the Do-Good Fellowship. So I think you all have copies of them. I’d like to share those questions with you. I’d like ya to each take a couple and read them out loud. And, so, um, so this is kinda of like our Pledge of Allegiance but we’ll do it, uh, separately. I’m gonna start with this table over here.” He motioned to the table furthest from Remy, Nadiya, and Irene. The new recruits were the ones reading the questions out loud. The others listened until it was their turn. 

Irene mouthed the words along with everyone that spoke, really getting into the questions. She was good at this sort of thing. Nadiya flashes a pointed stare at Remy during a couple questions, like she is silently calling him out. He never noticed as he was taking notes, convinced there was a test of sorts he would need to ace. The questions went around the room, eventually Irene and Remy read a few out loud. Nadiya finished it off with the last question on the list, reading it smoothly and professionally. “Do you see anything amiss in the present customs or proceedings of the Junto, which might be amended?” 

With the last of the twenty four questions out of the way, Hugh spoke up again. “So, we’re gonna give a little bit more time to check out your uh, your Swag bags.” As he said that, however, Remy spoke up loudly. 

“Y’all just thumb it! Just thumb it right in there!” He had already opened his bag, grinning proudly. Irene had a small smile, as she had whispered for him to try his thumbprint. Nadiya shook her head at the idiocy she had witnessed with Remy trying to break into his own bag. Remy wasted no time in taking the items out. 

Inside, there was a vest. It looked like a utility vest, decked out with inside and outside pockets. It would hold anything a person needed to hold. There was a triangular indentation on the left breast of the vest as well. There was also a triangular badge and, when someone touched it, a photo of them and their name popped up on it. Remy stared at the shape, then the indention on the vest, and put the badge there. It made a little ding sound and showed more information, such as his department and department head. He let out a small, childish squeal of glee. He really loved technology. The last thing inside the bag was a small penlight, but the bulb did not seem to do much in the way of lighting. 

Hugh explains that when the vest is activated with the badge, the fabric becomes almost a light armor. It might deflect a blade or a bullet, which would come in handy if they were ever thrown into a dangerous situation. “Uh, we’ll let you look at your stuff and kinda share with each other and uh we’ll continue with our activities in uh in just a few minutes.” He waved his hand to show everyone they could talk amongst themselves. 

Remy was the first to speak, which surprised no one at this point. “Hey I gotta say this is starting to feel a little bit like a test? Kinda maybe a little bit? Anybody else kinda getting that vibe that--that maybe we should be on our best behavior right now?” 

“Oh see, I was gonna say cult.” Nadiya said very casually, examining her vest with a small frown. 

Remy’s grin dropped. “Oh. It’s not--” He turned to look at his department head, Potts, an older man who had been rather quiet during the mixer. “This isn’t-- It’s not a cult right? Cause I can’t- that doesn’t sound great.”

“Actually, the Do Good Foundation is a charitable organization that’s been working for, uh, a lot of years to make the world a better place. And uh ah- cult is-is not actually accurate.” Irene spoke up, starting off confident sounding and ending a bit nervous again. 

Remy nodded knowingly. “Okay! I trust your-I trust your instincts.” That made Irene smile. She felt like she and Remy would make great friends. 

Potts finally spoke up. “Listen, I, uh, I understand where you’re coming from. But no, it’s not a cult.” 

That didn’t really put anyone at ease. It was exactly what a cult would say anyways. Remy changed the topic before anyone could dwell on it much longer. “Um Potts, is uh is this a test though? Cause I wanna- cause if it is, I wanna...do a good job, I just. I’m kinda nervous now.”

“Well, you know I think that everything in life is a test. I mean everything that you do you’re always being watched and- and you’re always being checked out to how you respond--not in a judgmental way but just you know these-- even though we vetted you guys and-and screened you and interviewed you, you know there’s still you know a getting to know period. It’s not just you getting to know each other, it’s us getting to know you too.” Potts said sagely. It was the most any of them had heard him say all night, and for a moment, it made all of them speechless. 

Remy was the first to break the short lull, once again. “So it is- it is a-it’s one-- it’s a test a little bit. Alright! That’s fine, I got this.” He laughed, but it sounded a little nervous. Another person stood in front of the crowd of people, gaining their attention once again. 

“Hello everyone, my name is Martine and I am head of security here at the Do-Good Fellowship.” She smiled, her smile seemingly aimed at Remy. “We’ve designed a fun exercise so everyone can get to know each other.” She announced. Irene quietly cheered. “Department heads?”

As she said that, all the department heads in the mixer left the tables, heading for the only door. “See you guys tomorrow!” Joe waved at Nadiya, who blatantly ignored him. 

“Here’s how the test works.” Martine began to explain. Remy had his fingers crossed, muttering “Egg spoon race” over and over quietly, making Nadiya roll her eyes. “You have one goal, and that’s to leave the room. All you have to do is, you and your table mates have to leave the room in the correct order.” With that, Martine left the room as well, leaving the door open behind her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I headcanon Irene as a vegetarian due to Kardalah demanding meat so much, hence her not eating Remy's slider. She took it to be polite, I think


	2. Colorful Science

The song changed just as Martine left the room. The screen read “West Palm Beach Florida” by Coldplay, but where it would say who requested it, there was a blank. The room was silent as everyone wondered what Martine meant by her puzzle. Remy was the first to break the silence. “Coldplay doesn’t have a song called West Palm Beach, and I’m not proud that I know enough about Coldplay--” He said loud enough for everyone to hear him. 

“Aww, geek check!” Nadiya teased with a smirk. 

“Okay. Yeah that’s- that’s- I mean I’m more familiar with their older hits like Garden State soundtrack era shit but I’m pretty sure I’ve never heard a Coldplay song called West Palm Beach-- Am I getting cell service in here?” He pulled out his phone to double check his own facts, but there was no service in this room. With a frown he put it back in his pocket. 

“Is anybody here… Is anybody here fr-” Irene started, but she was too soft spoken and she knew it. She cleared her throat and raised her voice as much as she was comfortable doing. “Uh, is anybody here from West Palm Beach? Out of curiosity?” 

Remy shook his head. Everyone else either shook their head or said no. She sighed, her idea falling flat. “Nope. Okay first, did anybody here request the song “West Palm Beach, Florida” by Coldplay?” Nadiya asked, attempting to take charge.

Remy put a hand on her shoulder, giving her the most serious expression he could manage. “I would never request a Coldplay song, I know we just met but you should know that about me.” 

She pushed his hand off her shoulder and turned her attention to the rest of the room. “Okay, anybody? Did anybody request this song?” No one owned up to it, so Nadiya decided to take things into her own hands once again. She headed to the jukebox to look it over, frowning as she examined the hightech music box. After a few button clicks, she discovered the song that was listed on the screen was not in the jukebox’s database. “This song isn’t in the jukebox.”

“Well, that’s not possible. That thing is-is-it’s like, the highest of tech for a jukebox. It has access to every song in the world.” Remy explained. “If the song isn’t in that thing, it doesn’t exist.” Remy started to pace, his footsteps more bouncing than really pacing back and forth. He glanced around the room and noticed a boy at one of the tables-Addison, according to his badge-was taking a hard look at his penlight. He walked over, looking at the penlight in his hands. “Uh, Addison did you figure something out? What’s the- I don’t know if we’re supposed to be sharing information right now but what’s up with your...what’s up with your pen?”

Addison gave him a wary look. “I’m not really open with sharing the information with you but uh, you know the fact that they would give us a light… And if you look at the--the little bulb thing, it does light up, it just doesn’t shoot a beam of light that I can see.” He said simply. 

Irene took out her own penlight and gave it a hard stare before clicking it on and waving it around. She was hoping to see it flash off something. After a moment, she turned it to Nadiya and it flashed for just a moment. “Remy.” Irene said, getting his attention. He started to wave his penlight on Nadiya. At first she was annoyed, but once she realized what they were getting at she scanned herself. 

“West Palm Beach…” Nadiya muttered, then shined her light on her left palm. A number appeared on her palm: 582. 

“Whoa.” Remy immediately checked his own palms, as did Irene. Neither of them had numbers they could see. The music changed then, making everyone look at the screen. “Walking On Sunshine” appeared on the scroll, requested by Martine, but who the song was by remained blank. Remy shined his light on his feet, then on Irene’s. Nothing happened. “I’m sorry Nadiya, I think it’s just you got stuff written all--you remember someone writing five-eighty-two on your hand?” He asked her. 

“I don’t know.” She said sharply. 

“Alright super helpful.” Remy huffed. 

Irene walked over to Addison, giving him a soft smile. “Addison did you uh have you figured anything else out? Cause I would- I would really love the help and I wanna make sure that uh that uh... that we can all sorta work together as a team that’s really important to me. So maybe you can kinda share something, then I can share something.” 

Remy bounced up as well. “Yeah we’ve gotta cool--we’ve got a number. It’s got three digits, so that’s three clues basically.” 

Addison gave them both a hard look for a moment before his expression softened. “You’re friendly and you know I- I like everybody! I try to get along with just about everybody and hey great googa mooga you are… the- one of the nicest people at this party so let me tell you this-” He leaned towards Irene as he spoke. “Once we saw you guys shining it on the palms, we shined it on our palms and Flanagan... Flanagan was the only one with a marking on her hand--on her palm. It was a 0.” He told her. She nodded her thanks with a bright smile. 

“Okay wait.” Nadiya stood between all the tables. “So everybody at the tables, raise your hand if somebody at your table had something written on their hand when you shined the penlight on it and if you haven’t tried it yet, try it now.”

One of the other tables starts to speak up, but one girl stopped them from speaking up. “Guys don’t-don’t tell ’em anything. Don’t tell ’em anything. This is a competition and I wanna win it.” She glared at Nadiya, walking towards her. “Why in the world, would we want to help you beat us…. Fucker.” She snapped, giving Nadiya a shove. Nadiya glanced down to see her name on her badge, which read “Jamie”.

Remy leaned towards Irene. “Hey Irene, you’re in HR right? You’re seeing all of this? Just checking…” She nodded, starting to walk to Nadiya to diffuse the situation. 

“No I- I got this.” Nadiya said, holding out a hand. She glared down at Jamie, who was a few inches shorter than her. “Jamie, I would like you to look around this room.” She put an arm around Jamie, making her look around. “Right? See everybody, look everybody in the eyeballs.” She stopped and faced Jamie again, her eyes dark with anger. “All of you together, do not equal my mind. So you can either help me now, and I will help you in the future.” She turned around and walked a few steps away for a moment before turning around and giving her a deadly look. “Or I will work and use every bit of my mind to ruin your time here.”

The entire Fellowship Hall fell silent, except for “Walking On Sunshine” that was still blaring through the hidden speakers. “That works.” Jamie said finally, swallowing hard. Jamie holds up her palm and shines her light on it. It reads 467. Satisfied with that, Nadiya returned to her table and scribbled down what they knew on another cocktail napkin. 

Remy took his loveable nature into his own hands once again and walked up to the last table in the room. “Uh do one of you have numbers on your palm that shows up when you shine the light on it? We have someone--We’re happy to share it. Maybe we can wo-work together, I watch a lot of Survivor and it seems to help when you, you know cooperate with the enemy a little bit so what- what do you say?”

A girl at the table turns to him, seemingly nervous. Her badge read “Pridmore”. “Listen I really need this job. I really need to do well here and anything I can do to curry favor with the people here in the Fellowship, I’m gonna do-- so it just doesn’t seem like--to make a lot of sense to me to give up our information quite so easily. What can you-what can you offer me?” She asked. 

Remy reached into his pocket and fished out his wallet. “I have like thirteen dollars. I have a library card, a Gamestop membership. Um…” He muttered, taking things out of his wallet as he spoke. 

“Wait!” Pridmore stopped him. “Hold on hold on just one little second. Is that an Olive Garden card in there?”

“Oh, yeah. It’s not the Pasta Pass but I think it has like twelve bucks on it. Uh so that’s probably enough for some Fettuccine. What do you say?” He held the card out to her. 

“Tell ya what, give me the cash and give me the card and we’ll share our number with you.” Pridmore crossed her arms. Remy bit his lip for a moment, appreciating her negotiation skills. 

“Really cleanin’ me out over here.” He handed the thirteen dollars over as well as the Olive Garden card. She pocketed them with a nod. 

“Show them, Abbey.” Pridmore said. Abbey held up his palm and shined his light on it, revealing the number 602.

“Huh.” Remy felt stumped, but at least he felt like they were making a little progress. The music changed again. The scroll said “Color My World” by Chicago, requested by Josie. “Uh Pridmore, this song have any sort of significance to you? Or Josie?” 

“I- it doesn’t make any sense to me.” Pridmore admitted, just as confused as Remy. “I love the song though.” She smiled a little, singing the lyrics quietly under her breath. Remy started to as well, until something clicked and his eyes widened. “Oh the map! The map with all the different color coded areas on-on it right? Maybe that’s anything.” 

Irene perked up at Remy’s comment. “Shine your light on that maybe- Maybe something will happen.” Remy gave her a firm thumbs up, then turned on his heel to shine his light on the map. 

The map flipped to show the large map of the entire base, with all the color-coded sections for the different departments. Nadiya frowned at the map. “R and D is yellow… R and D is yellow. Remy is IT and that’s a blue-violet. Irene is Humanities, that’s just violet.” She stared at the number on her hand under her penlight. “R and D is yellow. R and D…” She slammed her palms down on the table. “The visible light spectrum!” She exclaimed. Two other tables stood up and started heading for the door. Irene’s eyes widened.

“Let’s just go- let’s just go in order. Me uh-” Irene started to say as Nadiya grabbed her hand and started to tug her towards the door. 

“Yep, let’s go.” 

“Me, Remy-” 

“Alright!” 

“Me, Remy, and uh-” Irene made a noise of surprise as another group broke out into a run. Irene broke free of Nadiya’s grip and went first, followed by Remy who did a flip, and lastly Nadiya, who flicked off the other groups. They just barely made it through the door first. 

Their three department heads were waiting for them outside, with proud smiles. “I knew you guys would be the first three to do it. I knew you’d win!” Joe praised them. 

“Shut up, Joe.” Nadiya said, crossing her arms. 

Remy took the compliment with a wide smile. “Thank you, Joe. That means a lot.”

Irene turned around to see everyone else coming through the door and gave them soft smiles. She always tried to be a team player, after all. “Hey guys that was so much fun, thank you! We’ll get--You- You all will get’em next time we- we just barely made it. Wasn’t that fun though? It seemed really fun!” As she spoke, Sylviane gave her a deep glare that made it look like he wanted to stab her in the head. She shrank slightly, taking a cautious step back. 

“Alright listen you guys, that was awesome. We’re very proud of you but as you know, you have a very big day tomorrow. Tomorrow is the day we do the augmentation so… go to your rooms.” Potts spoke up, starting to usher everyone away from the Fellowship Hall. Remy seemed to latch on to the word “Augmentation” however. 

“Hey Potts can you uh back up and start over and particularly focus on sorta the augmentation part of it this time around. Am I gonna get a.. third maybe a fourth leg-What’s -- what are we talking about? Blasters in the chest-what are you--what do you--Hey Potts, what are you talking about man?” Remy asked, his voice bordering on panic. 

“You know what? You guys have had a lot thrown at you today. Bright and early tomorrow morning the-the prep crew--” Potts tried to dismiss it, but Remy wasn’t letting up so easy. 

“You can’t--Potts! You just! You can’t just mention body augmentation and then walk it back, Potts!” Remy insisted. 

“Well we’ll tell you about it in the morning. We’ll have a big debriefing tomorrow morning-a big breakfast debriefing so be thinking about what you wanna eat! And we’ll talk about it and we’ll- we’ll give you the waivers. This is totally your choice. We’ll talk about it in the morning okay?” Potts promised, trying to reassure his fears. As they talked, he had been walking them back to their rooms. 

“So it’s not a cult? Wait, it’s not a cult?” Nadiya asked, raising an eyebrow. 

“I don’t think it’s a cult. I think we’re probably good on that front. Is it…Potts! On the scale of ear piercing to second head attachment, where are landing vis-à-vis augmentation, I’d hate to get hung up on this.” Remy asked, bouncing to the front of the little group to look him in the eyes. 

“Let’s say... seventy-five percent more towards the head thing.” Potts shrugged like it really wasn’t that big of a deal. “But I’m telling you, it is going to transform your life. It is absolutely amazing what’s gonna happen to you.”

“Okay, so, just one last time-not a cult.” Nadiya asked with narrowed eyes. 

“Not a cult.” Potts paused. “It-It might be cult-ish.”

“Oh! Can I go back to the room we did the test in?” Remy asked suddenly. 

“Yes, if you’d like.” He said, a little confused. 

“Alright, I’m gonna go get my slider pyramid and finish them in my room!” Remy took off in the opposite direction. 

“We’re gonna-we’re gonna get some sleep, you should too.” Irene called after him. 

“I’m not gonna be sleeping great after eating twenty sliders but we’ll see about that!” He called back over his shoulder with a laugh.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's not a whole lot of interaction to fill in time gaps, or information Clint just gave to the boys, so I'm trying to fill that in as well as best I can in this. I hope I do everyone justice.


	3. Breakfast, Friendships, and... What?!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Most of this chapter is my own creation to fill in gaps. Clint did a morning jump which is fine, but then he did another morning jump _right after_ a morning bit. Clint, my good sir, that's not how time and things work. Anyways, this is mostly made up by me, throwing my own headcanons in.

Irene was the first to arrive in the private dining area in the Humanities wing. It was her department, after all. This is where she was supposed to meet Nadiya, Remy, and all of their department heads again. Seeing as no one else was there yet, she helped herself to the small buffet that was set up. She helped herself to a sugary muffin, but added a handful of fruit to balance it out. She wasn’t particularly hungry so she didn’t load up her plate. She also fixed herself a cup of tea and settled down at the table, enjoying the quiet. 

The quiet didn’t last long, as Nadiya was the second to arrive. “Oh, uh, good morning, Nadiya.” Irene said softly. Nadiya gave her a half wave, making a beeline for the coffee machine. She made a large cup of coffee and downed about half of it in one drink. “Oh, you should be careful with-with that. Caffeine is strong.” She muttered knowingly. Nadiya shrugged, fixing her plate next. She chose a bagel with light cream cheese and fruit, sitting across from Irene. She was staying quiet, not much for mornings. Irene didn’t mind, she also liked the quiet. 

The department heads, Potts, Joe, and Grace, filtered in slowly. They noticed the quiet of the morning and did their best not to disturb it, which both Irene and Nadiya appreciated. The last person to arrive was Remy, who did a small flip into the room, simply because he can. “Hey, good morning, how are you guys? How’d you, how’d you sleep? I know I slept like a rock once I was actually asleep. Oh look, food!” He stacked two bagels and a muffin onto his plate, as well as a little fruit and a dab of whip cream on the fruit. He fixed himself orange juice and finally sat down, going to town on his breakfast. 

“Well, there goes the peace and quiet of the morning.” Nadiya sighed. “Good morning, Remy.” She said politely, popping another strawberry into her mouth. 

“Good morning!” Irene smiled at Remy. While she did enjoy the peace and quiet, which she had a feeling was hard to come by here sometimes, she enjoyed her friend’s energy and optimism. Remy leaned over and ruffled her hair with a grin, making her laugh. 

“So what’s on the agenda today?” He asked through a mouth full of food. 

“Quite a lot, actually. I think I will let Joe start, he’s head of R and D so, that would… make the most sense. Joe?” Potts nodded at him. 

Joe stood up to face everyone better, clearing his throat. “Alright I know you-you folks have a lot of questions about the process. And I-I wanna tell you about it. It’s called the STEM Plant Process. STEM plants are these very tiny molecular bonds that we introduce into your system. And the STEM plants automatically go to places in your body to emphasize whether it’s mental, whether it’s physical, whatever it is that, act as little tiny bio-organic... enhancers. Uh, the process-we have a really good idea how it works and ironically uh, it’s-it’s based on research that Nadiya here has done. Nadiya, tell’ em a little about your- the research that you do-- that you do with the the artificial skin.” 

Nadiya nodded, wiping her mouth politely. “Basically what I’ve created is a kind of smart biopolymer. It acts uh- where you would normally need skin from a donor. It acts as both the skin and a bandage. It-- it mimics human skin, it grows, it changes, it heals...and over time bonds with-with the person who receives it and becomes part of their body. It’s basically amazing and a miracle and I did it and you’re all welcome.”

Remy slowly raised his hand, his eyes wide. Nadiya stared at him for a moment, trying to figure out if he was serious. “Yes… Yes, Remy?”

“I-I think I’m good on skin. I appreciate the offer but like I have plenty of skin already and I don’t need extra skin. Where would it go even I guess is my first question --on top of the skin that’s already there? Or would it just kinda dangle off? Cause that’s, I--”

Grace interrupted before he could go off on a rabbit trail of thought. “The technology that we use, almost introduces you into a “cocoon” that sorta covers your entire body.” 

Remy visibly shuddered. “Skin cocoon?” He choked. 

Grace held up a hand. “Well now wait-you emerge from the cocoon after the STEM plants are injected into you. So that’s-- you’re not gonna have extra skin hanging off of ya like a big goiter or something uh it’s just the way that we get the STEM plants into your system. There’s no pain involved whatsoever.”

“Can we please stop talking about my miracle creation like it’s a gross skin thing? Like it’s--” Nadiya sounded exasperated and frustrated. “It’s like plastic or silly putty or-or some kind of--it’s-it’s not skiiin…” She tried to explain.

Remy nodded slowly. “Yeah I guess--I guess I’m confused are we-- are we talking about steroids here? Cause I’m-I don’t think I wanna do that. I don’t wanna get DQ from the next qualifier. It’s not steroids right?” It was a real fear he had, being an athlete and all. 

Potts spoke up now. “Well I gotta tell you-you are gonna be permanently changed. This is not a reversible process and that’s why we have to make sure that all three of you want to go through this process. There’s something else you need to know about the process. Once it’s established, with these STEM plants and once you three have gained these abilities, these abilities only work in these three parts. In other words, the three of you have to be within a hundred yards of each other for these abilities to function.”

“Is that mandatory?” Nadiya frowned. 

“I think I’m gonna be telling you that everything’s mandatory from this point on. In other words, you three have to function within that proximity of each other for your abilities to work.” Potts finished. 

Remy looked nervous. Nadiya rolled her eyes. “Remy. Don’t be a coward. There’s no jumps in technology without risks.” She rolled her sleeve up, showing a patch of the polymer skin she had tested on herself. Irene gasped a little. “When I couldn’t get approval to test this on humans, I did it myself, and now I’m in the running for the Nobel Prize. So. Don’t be scared, and try it.”

Remy took a breath. “I’m not scared. I mean, you--earlier I think someone said the term skin cocoon and I- that’s gonna be sort of rattling around my cage for a while but um... I-- just to be-- I need to clarify something real quick--Hey Potts?” 

Potts made a humming sound, looking at Remy. “Are you about to give us superpowers?”

He chuckled a little, standing up and pushing his chair in. “Remy, Irene, Nadiya.” He looked at each of them in turn. “We are about to make you gods.”

* * *

Nadiya stared Potts down. “You’re going to make us gods.” She stated incredulously. She didn’t believe in such a thing. 

“Gods, with a capital G.” Potts nodded. “This is really not a metaphysical discussion. It’s more along the lines of abilities and powers.”

“You were speaking florally. Like, you’re gonna make us super powerful. Not that you’re gonna make us live on a big mountain in the sky. Or… maybe down under the earth, or…” Remy trailed off, trying to come up with other places gods traditionally lived in mythology. 

“I mean, you could– you could have just said that.” Nadiya said flatly. 

“It was a cool way to button up the conversation, I think.” Remy shrugged. 

“And it obviously failed.” Potts laughed a little. 

Nadiya leaned forward over the table a little. “Well, I mean it— listen, it made an impact, we’re talking about it, aren’t we? But, maybe next time just say ‘I’m going to perform experiments on you to try to make you more powerful than you are’.”

Remy looked thoughtful for a moment. “Alright, uh. Heat vision then. I guess.” 

“Yeah, heat vision for me too.” Irene nodded, sitting up a little straighter. 

Nadiya looked back and forth between the two of them. “Do we— do we get to pick, because I would like to be invisible, please.” 

Potts laughed, rubbing the back of his neck. “Uh, no, not really. Uh, it’s kind of a crapshoot. We haven’t done this too many times. I– It’ll all make sense to you tomorrow morning.”

“Why not do it today?” Nadiya asked. 

“Well, we- we wanted to explain it and make sure you’re on board with it before we jump into anything.” Potts explained. “We’ll start, prepping things for tomorrow. Meet in the medical wing of the Humanities division tomorrow morning, bright and early, wearing robes and swimsuits. Those’ll be provided and in your rooms. Oh, speaking of rooms, Grace?” 

Grace smiled. “Since the three of you will be a team, and will need to be around each other and work together for your powers to even work, we have arranged for you all to have a sort of suite together. It’s-it’s got three bedrooms, one bathroom I’m afraid, a kitchen area, and a common area. After you’re done with work for today, that’s where you’ll go. We’ll, uh, make sure you find your way there.” 

Nadiya glanced at the other two. “Is that mandatory as well?” She asked sourly. 

“Yes Nadiya, it is mandatory.” Joe sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Well, that’s all we need for now. You all can go to work now.” He dismissed them. Without much conversation, they split and went to work for the day.

* * *

Irene used her badge to open the door to her new suite, pushing inside. Her arms carried two large binders and a clipboard that she nearly dropped. She kicked the door shut behind herself and gasped a little at the sight in front of her. 

It was a huge suite, which was exciting, but it was somehow already a mess. Remy had made himself very at home on the couch, feet kicked up on the coffee table. His shoes were kicked off, there were already chip bags on the tables with crumbs on the floor, an empty energy drink can (if Irene were to check the fridge, it would have several energy drinks inside. Where did he get them?) a laptop half taken apart on the kitchen table, and Remy’s shirt was draped over a chair. “Remy! You, um. You really should clean up. Nadiya, she strikes me as, someone who is rather neat? She’s-she’s gonna hate this.” 

“Hey Irene! Sorry, slow day in IT so I’ve been here for a while.” He waved from the couch. Irene discovered quite quickly that the shirt on the chair was, really and truly, his shirt, and he was shirtless. She felt a little embarrassed to see him like that. “I’ve done some exercise, some work on that laptop on the kitchen table, and now I’m just chillin’.” He hopped up from the couch and stretched. She nodded slowly. 

“You should probably clean this up a bit, um, before Nadiya comes here?” Irene shrugged. “I’m going to go, a-and settle my things.” She walked past him and into the hallway, where the bedrooms were. She chose the middle one, as Remy had claimed the furthest one. That left the one closest to the living room to Nadiya. While Irene put her binders and clipboard down and took a moment to breathe,   
Remy cleaned up the trash in the living area. 

When Nadiya finally finished work for the day, or more accurately, when she got tired of the office and wanted a more private area to be in, the shared suite was much neater. Remy’s shoes were by the door, thanks to Irene. He was also dressed fully. The half taken apart laptop remained on the kitchen, since it was an ongoing project of Remy’s. Irene had swept up and Remy tossed the trash. Nadiya would never know how messy it had been before. “Welcome back Nadiya!” Irene smiled from the couch, her legs crossed in fuzzy pajama pants. She was sipping another cup of tea. 

“Hi… Where’s Remy?” She asked, glancing around the living area. 

“In his room. He, he didn’t want to, um, bother me. He’s-He’s doing nightly exercises. Or something.” Irene smiled a little, turning back to the binder open on the coffee table. She had receipts laid out and other documents strewn about as well. She was working on different HR things, even in her off evening. 

“Alright. I think I will also turn in to my room. Which one would be mine?” She asked. 

“Oh! The one closest to the living area.” She motioned towards the hallway. “I’ll be up, for a bit. If-If you want to, talk? Or something.” 

“...Thanks.” Nadiya went to her room, setting her notebooks down and slipping her lab coat off. She heard Remy pass her doorway as he was whistling a cheerful tune as he walked. She heard their distant conversations and felt a small tug she usually ignored. It’s not that she couldn’t talk to people, couldn’t make friends, but she never saw the point in it. She had better things to do. She glanced at her notebooks. It wouldn’t hurt to do her work out there with the others, she supposed. She finally conceded to her own internal struggle, gathering her pens and one notebook to work on and heading back to the living area. 

The three of them spent the evening together. Remy worked on the laptop in the kitchen, rambling cheerfully across to the others in the living area. Irene worked quietly on her HR reports, occasionally chiming in to something Remy said. She kept checking up on Nadiya, who remained rather quiet. Irene was a sweet woman. Nadiya found she enjoyed working near her, since she could be quiet and a calm presence. Nadiya worked on various equations, trying to work out certain kinks in projects the Fellowship had started but couldn’t seem to continue progress on yet. One by one, they retired to bed for the night. None of them talked about what was around the corner.


	4. Super Powers Are Super Weird

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is loooong but I couldn't find a good place to split it so? Long chapter.

In the medical wing of the Humanities division, Grace, Joe, and Potts were setting things up as Nadiya, Remy, and Irene arrived together. Irene was at least vaguely familiar with the room they found themselves in, but Nadiya and Remy had never seen so much as a blueprint for this. 

They stepped into the room, taking a look around. The room was bisected into two halves by a large, thick transparent wall. On the half of the room they were in, they saw many things. On the left side, there was a big pumping device, and Grace was standing there, prepping the machine. On the right side, there were these large tanks. Joe stood there, prepping them. In the middle of the wall stood a large, impressive–looking metallic door. The room that these three found themselves in when they first walked in was dominated by a circular table right in the middle of the room. 

Joe looked up as they entered and finished what he was doing to walk over to them with a smile. “Alright, hey guys, welcome to the big day. How’s everybody feeling?” He scanned each of their faces. 

Irene pushed her glasses up, her nerves showing. “A little nervous, if I’m gonna be honest.” She admitted.

Remy nodded from beside her. “Yeah, me too, not about the science, but that I’ll get, y’know, a lame power like, you know gettin…gettin real small or…you know, super–tasting or something like that.” He laughed, but anyone could see that he really was nervous, just by his tone of voice. 

Nadiya schooled her expression. “I’m fine.” She said curtly. Irene had a feeling she wasn’t as fine as she let on, but wouldn’t bring it up in public like this. 

Joe let out a sigh of relief, like he had expected them to back out last minute. “Well that’s good there. Okay, so, first thing you do is, uh, take off your robes. And, uh, hang them on those pegs over there, and we’ll get started.” He motioned to some pegs on the wall. Remy took his robe off with no hesitation, revealing a swimsuit for himself, similar to tighter boxers. He hung his robe up, stretching his arms above his head afterwards. Nadiya followed his lead, taking her robe off. She wore what looked like a sports bra and underwear, which was her own swimsuit. Irene was the last and most hesitant to reveal her body like that, even if she was covered like Nadiya. No one made any comments or even really paid attention to the fact that she went last, but she still felt a little uncomfortable. 

Potts and Joe open the metal hatch in the wall and motion for the three of them to step into the other side. They do, with Irene bringing up the end. She was biting her lip nervously the entire time. “This is a very impressive metallic hatch.” Nadiya commented. 

Against the clear wall, there are machines that seem to match the ones on the other side, lining up and connecting through the glass. The main attraction in the room was in the center. Three circular pads, evenly spaced out in the room, dominated the center. They were made of fine mesh and directly above them, coming from the ceiling, were an array of metal arms with nozzles on the end of each one. Grace walked in behind them and handed each of them a skullcap to place over their heads, with headphones built into the ears, goggles for their eyes, and a respirator with a microphone. 

“So is it like standard protocol, like, we have to get a spray tan before we get the superpowers or…?” Remy joked, looking over the items Grace handed them. 

“It’s very similar. I think you’re going to find it a very pleasurable experience actually.” Grace smiled. Nadiya muttered a comment under her breath as she put the cap, goggles, and respirator on, heading for one of the pads. 

“You've modelled the superpower injection process after spray tanning. Like we’re on Toddlers and Tiaras? Just, just making sure this is good science.” Remy pointed out as he put on his own items. 

“It’s exactly good science, trust me, it’s very good science. When you’re ready, when you’ve got the skullcaps on, the goggles on, the respirator – um, step up on those pads.” Grace motioned towards the pad. “Remy, you’re on the pad on the left. Nadiya, you’re on the pad on the right. Irene, you’re on the pad in the middle.” Nadiya sighed, moving to the right pad. Remy stepped on his pad and Irene nodded, stepping on her pad and fitting her items on properly. 

“Do the pads correspond to different superpowers, because is there a heat vision pad?” Remy asked through the microphone in his respirator. Irene and Nadiya noted they could hear him through their headphones, as well as hear Potts, Joe, and Grace. 

“Um, there is not specifically a heat vision pad.” Grace explained. “But they are calibrated to your own individual biology, so I’m afraid it is that order that you have to do that–”

“Cool. Let’s go, let’s go, I’ve got work to do. Come on.” Nadiya interrupted, tapping her foot. 

“Alright now, we’re going to need a minute or two to calibrate, so why don’t you three just, uh. Take a moment to gather your thoughts. Maybe share a little bit, talk to each other, and we’ll get started here in just a minute.” With that, Grace stepped back through the metal hatch and it closed behind her, sealing the three of them inside. 

For once, Irene is the one who breaks the silence. “Okay, everybody, top… movie. Is that good? Top– top movie?” She looked between Remy and Nadiya. Remy was paying attention, Nadiya seemed to be trying her hardest to ignore the conversation. 

“Top movie, like my f– my favorite movie?” Remy asked. 

“Top movie, yeah, like number one.” Irene smiled, not that any of them would see it with the respirator. Nadiya looked at them and pointed to her headphones and shrugged, as if to say she couldn’t hear  
them. 

“Uh– Nadiya. Nadiya?” Irene raised her voice. Nadiya made “I can’t hear you” noises, making Irene just sigh. “Favorite movie?” Nadiya continued to shrug about the headphones. “Alright, I’m going to pick a movie for Nadiya. Um… Let’s see…”

“Oh, Flubber.” Remy said suddenly, a hint of mischievousness in his voice. 

“Flubber. She loves science, Flubber.” Irene nodded as Nadiya narrowed her eyes. “Is your favorite movie Flubber, Nadiya? It’s probably Flubber.” Irene had picked up on Remy’s idea and was milking it for all it was worth. “Or the Nutty Professor II: The Klumps.”

“Nadiya, hey, Nadiya, don’t say anything if it’s Flubber or the Nutty Professor II: The Klumps. Just stay completely silent.” Remy laughed. Nadiya was starting to shake a little from her intense effort to stay quiet and ignore the foolishness. 

“So she picked Nutty Professor II: The Klumps.” Irene decided.

“It’s— it’s The Fly! It’s The Fly.” Nadiya finally shouted, making both Irene and Remy laugh. “It’s The Fly.”

“Ohhh, should’ve guessed that. What about you?” She turned to Remy now.

“Uh, it’s actually Flubber, which is weird, I, I—” He laughed again. “It’s just— it’s a lot of fun and uh, you know, there’s a lot of very high jumping, I was a kid and I watched, you know, Rob Williams jump  
real high with the Flubber on his shoes and I was like ‘hey, that looks pretty good’. It was actually what inspired me to become a, you know, a good jumper so. I owe a lot to that film. What about you, Irene?”

“Me? Royal Tenenbaums. Natch.” She shrugged. 

“Okay. Yeah, that’s one of the better ones.” 

“Of the movies, you mean?” She asked, amused. Remy nodded. “Yeah, of the movies, I think it’s probably one of the better ones.”

All of their headphones crackled suddenly, making each of them wince. Potts’ voice came through the headphones. “Okay, gang, we’re getting ready. Now let me just explain to you what’s gonna happen so you don’t completely freak out. Moderate freaking out is okay. Those nozzles up above you are going to spray what we call Skinthetic, which is a version of Nadiya’s artificial skin.”

Nadiya crossed her arms. “Okay, see you in court, go on.”

“No, actually, it was part of your agreement if you noticed, you signed it away.” Potts explained. She uncrossed her arms without further comment, only a frown. “Um, anyways, it will spray the Skinthetic in  
an aerosol form, and it will cover you and harden. Um, heh. Space Cadet used to call them your golems, ‘cause they sorta make you look like, kinda, rough–carved–”

Joe interrupted him suddenly. “Uh, not now. We need to hear it from them. We need to keep the chatter off the, uh, off the line.” 

“You did just say, just real quick, that it wasn’t gonna be a— specifically not gonna be a skin cocoon… situation? And I’m— it sounds like you’re maybe going back on that deal, maybe you’ve changed your mind about some stuff.” Remy spoke up, concern filling his voice. 

“Oh, it’s a skin cocoon.” Joe said bluntly. “We just— we talked it over with HR, and Irene and her cohorts agreed that it was better that you not just completely wig out.”

“It’s all about branding, you know what I mean.” Nadiya shrugged. “It’s like, they’re not gonna call it “skin cocoon”, call it Skinthetics, or whatever.” After that last comment, the Skinthetics began to spray out of the ceiling and cover each of them. Potts comes back on the line. 

“Alright, everybody doin' okay? Tell me what's going through your heads while this is happenin'.” He sounded a little worried. 

“I'm just thinking of all the work I'm going to do as like, super smart… some kind of like, Mega Scientist, I guess?” Nadiya simply assumed since her strength was her mind, she would get some sort of super smarts. 

“I– I– this is super yucky, and also my eyes don't feel hot at all, and I'm pretty bummed about that.” Remy announced. 

“Irene?” Potts asked. 

Irene swallowed hard, squeezing her eyes shut. “I’m really scared.”

“Okay. Well, you're doin' fine, just keep breathin' in your respirator, just keep talkin' to me. Um, you'll probably notice some changes in the consistency. You've got your arms extended, you look just like, uh, Sam in Quantum Leap. Your arms are extended to give the Skinthetic total access.”

“I– I gotta–” Remy started to say.

“Is the Skinthetic supposed to smell like cinnamon rolls, or…?” Nadiya asked, talking over Remy. 

“No, that's your own breath comin' through the respirator.” Potts explained.

“Oh! Well, I did have cinnamon rolls.” She admitted. 

“I have an itch on my tummy! And I can’t do nothin’ about it, please! Please. Can someone get in here and help me out?” Remy nearly shouted. Irene couldn’t tell if he was serious or not, but he did sound concerned about this itch of his. 

The golems started to harden around them, making them feel like they were in a mud bath, then left out in the sun for too long. “Alright, tell me how you’re feeling. Irene, are you still nervous?”

“Yeah?” She let out a nervous, breathy laugh. “What, exactly, in the past five minutes do you think would have dispelled my fears?” 

“Well, it’s about to get worse.” He sounded apologetic. “At this point, we activate the pumps.”

The pumps kicked into gear. They were rather loud. They filled the air with the STEM Plants, which were immediately attracted to the golems. They coated the golems, seeping into the Skinthetics and working their ways into the three of them. Irene felt a tingle, but otherwise nothing. “I feel a little bit of a tingle? Is that– is that normal? Just a little bit of one?” Nadiya voiced Irene’s exact concerns. 

“Just a little bit of a tingle is awesome.” Potts confirmed. After some time, cracks appeared in the golem that held Remy. Large chunks start to fall off him, cracking and breaking against the ground. The nozzles above Remy retract into the ceiling as Remy falls to his knees. After several moment of just sitting there on his knees, he put both hands to his temples and opened his eyes wide. “Byew! Byew! Byew!” He exclaimed. Nothing happened and he dropped his hands, disappointed that heat vision had not developed. 

All of a sudden, spots appear on Irene’s golem. They look like sparks that move around the surface of her golem. As this happens, Irene’s nozzles start to retract, but as soon as they move, the sparks arc and strike it with a bolt of electricity. The lights flickered, but stayed on. “Irene? Talk to me, what’s going on in there?” Potts sounded worried. 

“I– I don’t know, I feel strange.” Irene admitted. She sounded utterly terrified. The sparks moved around again, facing Remy now. They began to gather, and shoot off directly at Remy. He moved to roll to the side, but instead he planted his hands and jumped ten feet into the air off the handspring, landing perfectly and avoiding the sparks. He looked down at his hands, then his feet, then at the transparent wall where Potts was. 

“Uh huh… uh huh… uhhh?!” The sparks he avoided hit the pad Remy had been on, causing the lights to flicker longer this time, but they stayed on. “Irene, I don’t know if you can hear, but you need to chill in there, maybe!” Remy shouted in a panicked voice. 

Grace’s voice suddenly entered his ears. “Nadiya’s vitals are all over the place.” Remy looked at Nadiya’s golem, discovering that it had started to shift and move, without any seams or breakage. 

“Ah… That’s new.” Joe remarked. As her golem moved, it attracted the attention of the sparks on Irene. The sparks shifted to face her, and Joe came back on the headphones in a much louder and more panicked tone. “Nadiya! Your golem’s movin’! It’s very important that it not! Move!”

“Remy, we can’t open the hatch to help you until the filaments are pumped out of the room.” Potts instructed. 

“Can I– can I move Irene? Can I try to get this lightning from, stop blasting around the room?” Remy asked, looking around for the best solution. 

“I don’t know if I would move her. It’s still in the process. Until she comes out of the golem, it would be extremely dangerous.” Potts explained. Even he sounded worried now. 

“Nadiya, you’ve gotta help me calm Irene down or else she’s gonna fry both of us.” Remy said, watching the sparks carefully. 

“I’m a little, uh… distracted, if I’m going to be honest. There’s uh… a lot going on… right now. But, uh, I will do what I can. In the meantime, you could maybe draw her fire?” Nadiya sounded like it was a struggle for her to talk with everything happening to her. 

“Uh– Oh yeah! Seems like it’s attracted to movement. I can do that.” Remy ran in front of Irene and did a flip, trying to draw the electricity’s fire. It worked, and a huge arc flew at him. He rolled out of the way incredibly fast and the sparks flew into the wall. The lights flickered again and went out. 

“Irene? Irene…” Potts voice came through. The lights flickered back on, and before Remy was not Irene. 

“Finally. I. Demand. Meat!” 

“Who the– who is this? Who are you?” Remy sputtered. 

“My name is Kardala, little man, and I have been freed from the Irene prison, and I demand meat.” ‘Kardala’ said. Remy blinked, taking a short moment to take in her appearance. Irene’s hair had turned white, a stark contrast against her darker tan skin. Her eyes were simply pits of white electricity, or that’s the best way Remy could use to describe it. Her teeth were sharp. She was taller and more built than Irene ever could be. She had dark brown markings on her face and arms, almost tribal markings. Electricity sparked around both her fists. Her voice was even different. Gone was the soft spoken manner of Irene, and in its place was a demanding, loud voice too focused on meat to notice other things. 

“Does anybody– can you– Two things: I don’t have any meat. I’m basically nude right now, but also, please stop shooting lightning at all of us.” Remy said quickly, unable to take his eyes off of her. 

“Oh. Of course.” The lightning around her fists settled down finally. 

“Remy, the filaments are almost cleared, and security is on the way, but if anything happens to Nadiya while she’s still in golem form–” Potts chimed in, more focused on Nadiya than Irene-or, Kardala. Kardala ripped out her headphones with a scowl at them. “Remy, we can’t let her harm Nadiya in any way, shape, or form until she comes out of the golem. It would be fatal.”

“Little man, you will redirect me to meat or you will be meat, or you will– is this your prison? Have you created this prison for me?” Kardala demanded of Remy.

“Uh, no? We were doing a… ritual… to… summon you to our wor– I don’t know, that’s a bad lie. I don’t know what’s going on, but this isn’t a prison. We’re going to get out of here in a second, we just need to be patient for like, a minute.” Remy explained, holding his hands up to try and placate her. 

Kardala nodded slowly, glancing at Nadiya, still in her golem. “I understand you are afraid of the demon. I, too, have been shook to my core– ah, just kidding, little man, I am not afraid. Shall I destroy it for you?” She offered, holding up a fist with electricity crackling around it again. She started to move towards Nadiya, making Remy, quite literally, spring into action. 

“No?” He sounded panicked as he bounced between the two women. “No! Nononono, not a demon. Everything’s good, that’s my–”

“Look at it.” Kardala sneered, looking over his shoulder. 

“Yeah… No, it’s– it’s skin all over, and it’s moving around and stretching around all weird and that’s– but that’s I think normal and we are super good here and I– I have jerky? You know jerky, like, it’s like  
old meat. It’s good as hell, though. I have a lot of that back in my dorm, so I’ll swing by and get you some of that here in like, five minutes, tops.” Remy rambled, looking over his shoulder every few moments to see how Nadiya was doing. 

“I am famished for… I cannot count the days. I have watched the world through the prison of Irene Baker, and now I am finally free and I wish nothing more than to dine on flesh.” Kardala thundered, towering over Remy. 

“Flesh?!” His eyes widened and suddenly he felt fear for his own safety via being eaten. 

“But, I can be patient.” Kardala finally said, seeming to relax, if only a little. Remy sighed in relief. As he did that, however, Martine and Sylvaine appeared on the other side of the transparent wall holding  
weapons. 

“Open the hatch, Pottsy.” Martine demanded. Potts refused, watching Nadiya intensely. 

“Pottsy, I would listen to them. Open the hatch. This hatch.” Kardala nodded at the hatch that was keeping them all, but most importantly her, trapped. 

“Uh. Don’t do that, not ‘til Nadiya’s awake. Nadiya, can you hear me– can you, like, finish molting or whatever?” Remy bounced on his toes, eyes flickering between the weapons, Kardala, and Nadiya. There was a lot of danger and he was the only one who could really protect Nadiya right now. 

“Who is Nadiya? Where is she?” Kardala looked around, and if it wasn’t a life or death situation, Remy might have found her confusion funny. 

“She’s the demon one, you thought she was.” Remy filled in, now watching the two with weapons outside their chamber. 

Joe suddenly chimed in through Remy and Nadiya’s earbuds. “Nadiya, listen to me. For some reason the Skinthetics seem to be reacting with your body. You are not going to be able to reject the Skinthetic. It will not slough off. You– It seemed to be reacting to your arm for some reason.”

“Oh, yeah. I have the– the skin graft, um. This is unexpected. Give me a second.” Nadiya spoke, making Remy feel a little better. She had been silent for so long, he had begun to really worry. Nadiya went silent again, seemingly focused on whatever task she was doing. Her golem would not fall off, like Joe said. Instead, it seemed like Nadiya was absorbing the Skinthetic.

On the other side of the wall, Martine pointed at Potts and Sylvaine went over and restrained him. Remy shouted his protest to that as Martine went over and started punching buttons to open the hatch. 

“Give me… just one more minute. I think I’ve almost got it.” Nadiya announced. 

Joe was glaring at Martine fiercely. If Nadiya could see him now, she might have held more respect for him. “You and your fella do not run things here, Martine. Three department heads here say give ‘em time.”

“I’ll give you one minute.” Martine snapped, holding up her weapon. “I’m the one department head with a gun.”

Kardala, who had been surprisingly quiet and more or less calm, stared through the glass. Martine had her gun trained on her while Sylvaine held Potts back. She realized it was a weapon and grinned a sharp-toothed and mildly terrifying grin. She walked up to the transparent wall and punched the glass, making it splinter and spiderweb. As this happened, the hatch popped open, and Nadiya looked like herself again, golem gone and absorbed into herself. 

“Okay! Looks like everything’s okay. Everybody’s fine, everybody’s stabilized. Great.” Martine holstered her weapon with a sigh. “Terrific! Alright you guys. Patch ‘em up, feed ‘em, get ‘em outfitted.” She motioned to Sylvaine, who released Potts and holstered his own weapon. 

“Wait– you can’t just come in here and point guns at everybody and then be cool about it!” Remy sputtered. Many things had just happened all at once and it was taking his mind a moment to process and regroup. 

“I demand battle!” Kardala shouted, making Remy jump just a little. She was such an opposite to Irene, it was almost jarring.

Martine laughed, finding Kardala’s demands amusing and entertaining. “It’s comin’. Trust me. But not now! We need to get you skimmin’ and in the air in one hour!”

Nadiya stared at Martine for a moment before raising her fist, except it didn’t look like a fist anymore. It looked more like a cinderblock, and it flew out and punched Martine. Not only was Nadiya’s fist a cinderblock, her arm actually stretched out to hit Martine. Kardala laughed a booming laugh. “Yes! This demon craves battle! I like this demon!” She shouted as Martine sprawled out on the ground. 

Sylvaine immediately drew his weapon, pointing it at Nadiya. She held up her hands, now normal, in surrender. “Sorry– Sorry about that. Um. I was just….really angry, and… huh. I see. Interesting. Wasn’t expecting that at all, huh.” She said sarcastically, her face a deadpan. 

“You can turn your body into a rock like the Kirby power?” Remy asked with wide eyes. 

“Apparently?” Nadiya shrugged. 

“Do another rock! Do a different– can you be a big–” He couldn’t seem to find the words and stumbled through his excitement. Nadiya smirked a little. 

“Name a weapon.” 

“Two swords!” He said with a grin. Kardala asked for a spear at the same time. 

“Swords first.” Nadiya nodded. 

“Well,” Remy glanced at Kardala nervously. “Do spear first, because she gets angry real fast.”

“Fine.” She concentrated, staring at her arms and hands. Slowly, one became a spear and the other made a shield. “Huh. Interesting.” She let go of her concentration and looked at Martine. “Oh! Uh, yes.” She pulled the other woman up. “Sorry.” Nadiya said, but it didn’t sound sincere. 

Martine grinned, wiping some blood away from her nose. “I like it. Nice job, everybody! Now get ‘em ready, they’re in the air in one hour.” She announced to everyone. 

“Who shall I punch?” Kardala asked, opening and closing one fist with a dangerous gleam in her lightning eyes. 

“No– let’s– can somebody meat her? Get her some meat? This is– she has sort of a one track mind about- hey, by the way, is Irene just gone? What happened?” Remy turned to face Kardala fully, as did Nadiya. 

“Irene is a prison that was constructed to keep me, Kardala-” Kardala started to say, but Remy did a dangerous thing and interrupted her. 

“She was actually pretty cool.” Remy sighed, seemingly a little disheartened. 

“Can we talk to Irene- is Irene in there?” Nadiya asked, her eyes narrowed in thought, like this was just another scientific puzzle to solve. 

Kardala watched the two smaller people for a moment. “Sure, go ahead. Ask Irene something.”

“Irene, what’s your favorite movie?” Remy asked. There was a long pause. 

“I love to watch movies, and I eat popcorn also!” Kardala beamed. 

“I think Irene’s gone.” Remy said sadly. 

“That was a trick! Hah!” Kardala laughed. 

“Hey, Kardala, I just also like wanna know what are you, is this like a Jekyll and Hyde situation? Is- is th- what’s goin on?” Remy sighed, a bit exasperated. 

“My name is the thunder goddess Kardala, you may call me Kardala. I watch over people of the North, and protect them and serve bounty, but mainly I have been imprisoned for years inside a prison called-”

Remy sighed. “Yeah, inside a prison called Irene, yeah.”

Kardala ignored the interruption entirely. “Irene Baker. You know of her, yes. Now I have been freed. And all I desire, at the moment, is meat. I will... figure out next steps after that.” 

Nadiya held up a hand. “Big picture, okay.” She started to say, but her stomach protested loudly. “You know what, actually? I’m pretty hungry too. If we could grab a sandwich or something… I am now apparently human Silly Putty. Um, and it’s a lot to process, so.” She shrugged, examining her hands again. 

“Yeah, I could eat!” Remy bounced on his toes, hurrying towards the door. Instead of walking like a normal person, however, he leaped into a wall with a resounding crash, making Kardala laugh. “Okay, I gotta recalibrate, I guess, my movement a little bit. I think I can jump super good, by the way, which, to be a little honest, is a little disappointing, ‘cause I did already know how to jump pretty good. And also like, I was an Olympic athlete, and I trained for that my whole life, and didn’t get weekends or a childhood, really, so if I knew that they could just sort of matrix super-jumping into you, I probably would have just, like. Wasted all of my time playing Yugioh cards– well, wasting more of my time playing Yugioh cards.” He muttered, rubbing his head. 

“To be fair, I thought I would become some kind of like. Well, I was going to say Reed Richards, and I guess that that is more–” Nadiay shrugged. “Yeah. I meant in the super smart scientist way. But I think the stretchy way, I guess. Let me see.” She held out her arms, fingers extended, trying to stretch them. Nothing happened. “So… Not stretchy then.” 

“Um, Potts, is there any way I can go again? And maybe see if I get heat vision this time? Or flight, or…?” Remy asked, a little disappointed that all his powers gave him was even more skill in something he had already mastered. 

Potts smiled. “Well, no, but I’ll tell ya one thing, Remy. Our indicators show there’s still some powers being processed in your hands. So, maybe they’ll manifest themselves later on but–”

“HEAT BEAMS! PYOW!” Remy held out his hands, making laser noises once again. 

Nadiya shushed him. “All of us, or just– just him?”

“Just Remy. Something, it’s– it’s just like some kind of energy flow, but it’s- it’s tough to tell. It may show up later, so we’ll just keep an eye on the situation.” Potts shrugged. “Well. Martine is right, we need ta get you into the air but first, food! Come on!” He waved for them to follow him out of the room, heading for a dining room to get them all food and prepped for what was coming.


End file.
